CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Electric truck startup Nikola settles fraud charges for $125 million

Nikola is a Phoenix-based startup that aims to produce electric- and hydrogen-powered trucks. File Photo courtesy Nikola Corp.

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Electric truck startup Nikola announced on Tuesday that it's agreed to pay $125 million to settle federal charges that it defrauded investors.

Regulators said Nikola misled investors about products, technical advancements and commercial prospects.

In July, federal prosecutors charged Nikola founder and former CEO Trevor Milton with securities and wire fraud and making false statements about the company.

The accusations say Milton embarked on "a public relations campaign aimed at inflating and maintaining Nikola's stock price" before it had even produced a single vehicle.

The statements falsely gave investors the impression that Nikola had reached certain product and technological milestones, authorities said.

Officials said Nikola further misled investors by "misrepresenting or omitting material facts."

"Nikola Corporation is responsible both for Milton's allegedly misleading statements and for other alleged deceptions, all of which falsely portrayed the true state of the company's business and technology," Gurbir Grewal, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division, said in a statement.

Under the terms of the deal, Nikola doesn't acknowledge or deny the accusations of fraud. The Phoenix-based company said it will attempt to recoup some of the penalty from Milton.

"We are pleased to bring this chapter to a close," Nikola said in a statement.

Nikola will pay the $125 million fine in five installments over two years.

Google celebrates the arrival of winter, summer with new Doodles





Google is marking the start of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere with a new Doodle. Image courtesy of Google

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Google welcomed the start of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere with new Doodles on Tuesday.

Google's homepage, for those living in the Northern Hemisphere, features an animated hedgehog walking through the snow with his eyes closed.

The hedgehog additionally has pine cones and leaves on his back.

For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the Doodle features the same hedgehog walking and smiling while wearing sunglasses. The animal has fruit and tropical plants on its back as the sun beams down on him.

Google presents Doodles every year to mark the arrival of the winter and summer solstice.

The company celebrated both the winter and summer solstice in 2020 along with the great conjunction, a rare occurrence between Jupiter and Saturn where the two planets nearly overlap.


Google is marking the start of the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere with a new Doodle. Image courtesy of Google

Winter solstice: Tuesday brings shortest day, longest night of the year

The sun sets over the Manhattan skyline in New York City. Tuesday marked the beginning of the winter solstice, which brings the shortest amount of daylight than any other day of the year. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The start of winter arrived right on schedule on Tuesday -- 10:58 a.m. EST -- as the Northern Hemisphere officially entered the year's coldest season.

The start of the season is marked by the winter solstice, which brings the shortest day and longest night of the calendar year. It is at this point that the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest from the sun.

The winter solstice occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn.

After Tuesday, days will begin to get progressively longer until culminating with the summer solstice on June 21.

The March equinox on March 20 will mark the beginning of the astronomical spring season.

Seasons change on Earth because the planet is slightly tilted on its axis as it travels around the sun. During the first week in January, Earth is about 1.6 million miles closer to the sun.



Although the astronomical winter season began on Tuesday, meteorologists typically view Dec. 1 as the start of winter.

The date of the winter solstice varies between Dec. 20 and Dec. 23, but it most often falls on the 21st or 22nd.

Pope Francis slams excessive military spending ahead of World Peace Day

By UPI Staff

Pope Francis leads the recitation of the Angelus prayer on Sunday from the window of his office overlooking Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City. Photo by Vatican Media via EPA-EFE

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- In an address at the Vatican on Tuesday, Pope Francis called on world leaders to scale back the amount of money spent on military defense -- in favor of spending more money on more noble and peaceful pursuits.

The pontiff made the remarks at St. Peter's Square ahead of World Peace Day on Jan. 1.

"In recent years, there has been a significant reduction worldwide in funding for education and training; these have been seen more as expenditures than investments," Francis said in his remarks.

"Yet they are the primary means of promoting integral human development; they make individuals more free and responsible, and they are essential for the defense and promotion of peace.

"In a word, teaching and education are the foundations of a cohesive civil society capable of generating hope, prosperity and progress. Military expenditures, on the other hand, have increased beyond the levels at the end of the Cold War and they seem certain to grow exorbitantly."

Catholic Cardinal Peter Turkson said the pontiff's message demonstrates the need for every person to "play a creative role in the project for peace."

"It is high time, then, that governments develop economic policies aimed at inverting the proportion of public funds spent on education and on weaponry," the pope added in his speech.

"The pursuit of a genuine process of international disarmament can only prove beneficial for the development of peoples and nations, freeing up financial resources better used for healthcare, schools, infrastructure, care of the land and so forth.

Aside from dismissing excessive military spending, Pope Francis also urged partnership between older and younger generations, additional spending on education and fairer working conditions worldwide.

New reforms target US military’s missing weapons problem
By KRISTIN M. HALL and JUSTIN PRITCHARD

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In this July 13, 2017, image provided by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command on Feb. 9, 2021, a storage container of explosive ordnance shows signs of theft after arriving at the Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pa. An ammunition canister containing 32 rounds of 40mm M430A1 grenades, property of the U.S. Marine Corps, was missing. (U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command via AP, File)


The Department of Defense is overhauling how it keeps track of its guns and explosives, and Congress is requiring more accountability from the Pentagon -- responses to an Associated Press investigation that showed lost or stolen military weapons were reaching America’s streets.

The missing weaponry includes assault rifles, machine guns, handguns, armor-piercing grenades, artillery shells, mortars, grenade launchers and plastic explosives.

The Pentagon will now have to give lawmakers an annual report on weapons loss and security under the National Defense Authorization Act, which Congress approved this month and President Joe Biden is expected to sign. As AP’s AWOL Weapons investigation showed, military officials weren’t advising Congress even as guns and explosives continued to disappear.

To meet those reporting requirements, the military is modernizing how it accounts for its millions of firearms and mountains of explosives.

“Clearly the accountability on this issue was stopping at too low of a level,” said U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colorado, a U.S. Army veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee who supported the reforms. With the new requirements, “if there are hundreds of missing weapons in that report, members of Congress are going to see it and they are going to be asked about it publicly and held accountable for it.”

Pentagon officials have said that they can account for more than 99.9% of firearms, and take weapons security very seriously. Still, when AP published its first report on missing firearms in June, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he would consider a “systematic fix.”

In response, the Army, the largest branch with the most firearms, took on a major overhaul of how units report missing, lost or stolen weapons. Paper records are giving way to a digital form, and a central logistics operations center is collecting and verifying serious incident reports that — as with other armed services — didn’t always go all the way up the chain of command.

The new system uses an existing software system called Vantage to give commanders a real-time look at what is unaccounted for, Scott Forster, an operations research analyst at the Army, said in a briefing with AP.

Other changes will affect how the military responds to law enforcement investigations.

When a gun is recovered or sought during a criminal case, the Defense Department’s Small Arms and Light Weapons Registry is supposed to determine the last known location or unit responsible. But the registry’s information was inaccurate and responses to law enforcement weren’t timely, according to internal Army documents obtained by the AP. (The Army runs the registry for the Pentagon.)

The Army is now developing an app that would search each service’s own property record databases, according to Army spokesman Lt. Col. Brandon Kelley.

The new law also requires the Defense Secretary to report confirmed thefts or recovery of weapons to the National Crime Information Center, which the FBI runs. Military regulations had required the services and units to self-report losses; the onus will now be on the highest level of the Pentagon.

The other armed services also are implementing reforms.

The Marine Corps said it is developing internal procedures for improved oversight through increased inspections of units. The Navy required units to notify a higher headquarters when reporting weapons losses. The Air Force has replaced its munitions property book system with a commercial application.

This summer, the Defense Logistics Agency began reporting to the Pentagon losses and thefts of firearms that the military loaned to civilian agencies under the Law Enforcement Support Office program. In its data release to AP, the Pentagon reported that 461 of these firearms had vanished, with 109 later recovered. AP’s reporting did not include LESO weapons.

After the AP’s initial report published in June, Gen. Milley tasked the service branches with scrubbing their data on firearms losses since 2010 -- the time period AP studied.

The Pentagon reluctantly shared the statistics it collected, which Milley’s office has provided to Capitol Hill. The official numbers are lower than what AP reported -- but also incomplete, because some services failed to include stolen weapons as documented by the military’s own criminal investigators.

The number of missing, lost or stolen firearms was “approximately 1,540” from 2010 through this summer, according to LTC Uriah Orland, a spokesman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The majority have been recovered, he said. That total compares to the at least 2,000 firearms that AP had reported for 2010 through 2020, a tally was based on the military’s own data, internal memoranda, criminal investigation case files and other sources.

There are several reasons for the discrepancy. In conducting their analyses, each service used different standards and systems. Despite the detailed data search by each service, AP found lost or stolen items that were not in their official accounting.

Relying on its official weapons registry, the Navy data represented that none of its shotguns have been stolen and its only explosives losses during the 2010s were 20 concussion grenades. AP identified several shotguns and dozens of armor-piercing grenades, based on case files from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

The Marines decided that any weapon that vanished in a combat zone didn’t count -- even in cases, for example, when a rifle fell from a vehicle or aircraft, or disappeared from living quarters on overseas base. Their total of “unaccounted for” firearms since 2010 was 31.

The biggest explanation for the difference between AP’s numbers and official numbers is a significant downward revision of Army totals.

In June, AP reported the Army couldn’t account for more than 1,500 weapons. Most of that total derived from internal Army memos that said 1,300 rifles and handguns were lost or stolen between 2013 and 2019. The Army had said the memos could include duplications and combat losses, which AP excluded when known.

Responding to Milley’s order, personnel hand-searched records. Their conclusion was that, in the 2010s, only 469 firearms were missing.

Army officials didn’t detail which weapons they excluded or their criteria for reaching the total, which AP was unable to verify independently.

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Hall reported from Nashville, Tennessee; contact her at https://twitter.com/kmhall. Pritchard reported from Los Angeles; contact him at https://twitter.com/JPritchardAP.

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Email AP’s Global Investigations Team at investigative@ap.org or via https://www.ap.org/tips/. See other work at https://www.apnews.com/hub/ap-investigations.

Biden administration moves to expand solar power on US land
By MATTHEW BROWN

 In this Dec. 11, 2017, file photo, solar arrays line the desert floor of the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone as part of the 179 megawatt Switch Station 1 and Switch Station 2 Solar Projects north of Las Vegas. The Biden administration on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, issued a solicitation for interest in developing solar power on public lands in Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, File)


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials announced approval Tuesday of two large-scale solar projects in California and moved to open up public lands in other Western states to potential solar power development, as part of the Biden administration’s effort to counter climate change by shifting from fossil fuels.

The Interior Department approved the Arica and Victory Pass solar projects on federal land in Riverside County east of Los Angeles. Combined they would generate up to 465 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 132,000 homes, according to San Francisco-based developer Clearway Energy. Approval of a third solar farm planned for 500 megawatts is expected in coming days, officials said.

The Interior Department also Tuesday issued a call to nominate land for development within “solar energy zones” in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico that combined cover about 140 square miles (360 square kilometers).

The invitation to developers comes as officials under Democratic President Joe Biden promote renewable wind and solar power on public lands and offshore to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet. That’s a pronounced change from Republican President Donald Trump’s emphasis on coal mining and oil and gas drilling.

Biden suffered a huge blow to his climate agenda this week, as opposition from West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin tanked the administration’s centerpiece climate and social services legislation. The administration also has been forced to resume oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and numerous western states, after a federal judge sided with Republican-led states that sued when Biden suspended the sales.

During a Tuesday conference call with reporters, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland did not directly address a question about the faltering climate bill and instead pointed to clean energy provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law last month.

“We fully intend to meet our clean energy goals,” Haaland said. She said the Trump administration stalled clean energy by shuttering renewable energy offices at the Bureau of Land Management and undermining long-term agreements, such as a conservation plan tied to solar development in the California desert.

“We are rebuilding that capacity,” Haaland said.

But without the climate bill, tax incentives to build large-scale solar will drop to 10% of a developer’s total capital costs by 2024, instead of rising to 30%, said Xiaojing Sun, head solar researcher at industry consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

Incentives for residential-scale solar would go away completely by 2024, she said.

“It will significantly slow down the growth of solar,” Sun said.

However, she added that streamlining access to federal land could help the industry, as large solar farms on non-federal lands face growing local opposition and cumbersome zoning laws.

The Bureau of Land Management oversees almost a quarter-billion acres of land, primarily in Western states. Agency director Tracy-Stone Manning said boosting renewable energy is now one of its top priorities.

Forty large-scale solar proposals in the West are under consideration, she said.

The agency in early December issued a draft plan to reduce rents and other fees paid by companies authorized to build wind and solar projects on public lands. Officials were unable to provide an estimate of how much money that could save developers.

In Nevada, where the federal government owns and manages more than 80% of the state’s land, large-scale solar projects have faced opposition from environmentalists concerned about harm to plants and animals in the sun- and windswept deserts.

Developers abandoned plans for what would have been the country’s largest solar panel installation earlier this year north of Las Vegas amid concerns from local residents. Environmentalists are fighting another solar project near the Nevada-California border that they claim could harm birds and desert tortoises.

Stone-Manning said solar projects on public lands are being sited to take environmental concerns into account.

The solar development zones were first proposed under the Obama administration, which in 2012 adopted plans to bring utility-scale solar energy projects to public lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Officials have identified almost 1,400 square miles (3,500 square kilometers) of public land for potential leasing for solar power.

If all that land were developed, the bureau says it could support more than 100 gigawatts of solar power, or enough for 29 million homes.

That’s almost equal to all U.S. solar capacity now in place.

The power generation capacity of solar farms operating on federal lands is a small fraction of that amount — just over 3 gigawatts, federal data shows.

In November the land bureau awarded solar leases for land in Utah’s Milford Flats solar zone. Solar leases are expected to be finalized by the end of the month for about land at several sites in Arizona.

Solar power on public and private lands accounted for about 3% of total U.S. electricity production in 2020. After construction costs fell during the past decade, that figure is expected to grow sharply, to more than 20% by 2050, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects.

Developers warn costs have been rising due to constraints on supplies of steel, semiconductor chips and other materials.

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Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Carson City, Nevada, contributed to this report.

INDONESIA

Development and conservation clash at Komodo National Park

By VICTORIA MILKO

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This undated photo provided by researcher Bryan Fry shows a Komodo dragon at Komodo National Park in Indonesia. In 2021, construction for tourism in Komodo National Park has raised concerns from the United Nations officials, environmental activists and residents about damage to habitat of the Komodo dragon.

 (Bryan Fry via AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — On a dirt path, forked yellow tongue darting from its mouth, a member of world’s largest lizard species lazes on an island in eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park as tourists snap photos. And about 18 miles (30 kilometers) away on another park island that harbors Komodo dragons, trees have been removed and concrete poured for new tourist facilities that have aroused the ire of residents and environmental activists.

The construction is part of an ambitious Indonesian initiative that has generated tensions between a government that wants to develop natural attractions for luxury tourism and conservationists who fear habitat for the endangered Komodo dragon will be irreparably harmed. United Nations officials have also voiced concerns about potential tourism impacts on this unique wildlife-rich park.

Encompassing about 850 square miles (2,200 square kilometers) of land and marine area, Komodo National Park was established in 1980 to help protect the famed dragons. Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry estimates around 3,000 of the reptiles live there today, along with manatee-like dugongs, sea turtles, whales and more than a thousand species of tropical fish.

Because of its biodiversity and beauty, the park became a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site in 1991. And it’s one of Indonesia’s crown jewels for tourism, typically drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world each year.

For years the government has been trying to figure out how to best capitalize on the park, most recently designating it part of the country’s “10 New Balis” initiative — an effort to draw more tourists, as the island of Bali did before border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are embarking into a new era of tourism in Indonesia based on nature and culture, focusing on sustainability and quality tourism,” Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno told The Associated Press.

Part of that multimillion dollar tourism development is a project on Rinca Island, where more than one-third of the park’s dragons are estimated to live on generally hot and dry terrain. The construction includes an expanded ranger station, viewing platform, boat dock, toilets and other infrastructure.

The project worries local environmental activists and residents within park boundaries who say their livelihoods as tour guides, boat drivers and souvenir sellers depend on the draw of the area’s natural beauty.

“When we talk about the development in the conservation area, we have to think ... whether this is a wisely considered economic effect for the local people — or the environmental effect,” said Gregorius Afioma, a member of the local non-governmental organization Sun Spirit for Justice and Peace. “The situation now is like collective suicide.

“We think that this kind of business will eventually kill others’ businesses and even themselves because they destroyed the environment,” Afioma said, adding that local residents also fear they won’t get construction jobs for the luxury tourist destination the Indonesian government is promoting.

UNESCO — the United Nations body that designates World Heritage Site status — has also raised concerns about development in the park.

“The state party did not inform us, as required by the operational guidelines,” said Guy Debonnet, chief of the body’s natural heritage unit. “This is definitely a project of concern, because we feel that the impacts on the universal value (of the park) have not been properly evaluated.”

During a meeting in July, UNESCO expressed other concerns, such as the project’s reduction of the park’s wilderness zone to one-third the previous area, addition of tourism concessions within the property, lack of an adequate environmental impact assessment, and a target to dramatically increase visitors.

“Third-party information transmitted to the State Party indicates that a target of 500,000 annual visitors for the property has been proposed, which is more than double the pre-COVID-19 pandemic visitor numbers,” said a report from the meeting. “This raises the question of how this tourism model fits (Indonesia’s) vision of moving away from mass tourism to more sustainable approaches.”

At UNESCO’s request, the country submitted more information about the project. But after reviewing it, the U.N. agency requested in October 2020 that Indonesia not “proceed with any tourism infrastructure project that may affect the Outstanding Universal Value of the property prior to a review of the relevant environmental impact assessment” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

IUCN is an international, non-governmental organization that provides UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee with technical evaluations of natural heritage properties.

After multiple attempts to get permission from government authorities, The Associated Press was unable to gain access to the construction site, which has been closed to the public for months. But satellite imagery shows construction continued after UNESCO requested the project be paused. The government did not respond to an email last week seeking comment.

As of Dec. 6, UNESCO still had not received the requested revised assessment, said Debonnet, the world heritage unit chief.

The Indonesian government also granted at least two business permits in Komodo National Park, including for projects on Rinca, Komodo and Padar islands, according to an email to the AP from Shana Fatina, president director at the Labuan Bajo Flores Tourism Authority, which helps coordinate government tourism efforts.

Some experts fear tourism expansion in the park could lead to disturbance of Komodo dragon habitat.

The predatory lizards, which can reach a length of 10 feet (3 meters) and more than 300 pounds (135 kilograms), were recently moved from “vulnerable” to “endangered” status on the IUCN list of threatened species. The organization cited the impacts of climate change and deterioration of the dragons’ habitat — including human encroachment — as reasons for the change.

Unless carefully managed, tourism projects could “have a big impact, not just from the number of people disturbing the behavior of the dragons and disturbing their prey, but also how much freshwater is being siphoned off,” said Bryan Fry, an associate professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland in Australia. “That could dramatically impact the very delicate balance of these islands.”

The opening date for the new Rinca Island facilities has yet to be announced. UNESCO’s Debonnet said it is engaged in talks with Indonesian officials to arrange a monitoring mission to assess the impact of ongoing development on the park and review its state of conservation.

And while World Heritage sites are usually discussed by the UNESCO committee on two-year cycles, Komodo National Park will be discussed in 2022, said Debonnet. “That is kind of an indication that we see there is some urgency in this issue,” he said.

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Follow Victoria Milko on Twitter: @thevmilko

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Gaza’s old battery pileups pose risk to health, environment

By FARES AKRAM

A Palestinian worker carries a discarded battery at a warehouse in Jebaliya, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021. In a territory suffering from chronic power outages, batteries are needed to keep most Gaza households running. But huge mounds of used batteries are piling up at makeshift outdoor landfills, posing a threat to public health and the environment. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Virtually every household in the Gaza Strip relies on batteries to keep their home running -- a result of years of chronic power outages.

These batteries, fueling everything from lights to internet routers to solar panels, have helped mitigate one crisis. But they are causing another one as huge mounds of old and used batteries pile up in a territory lacking the ability to safely dispose of them.

“There is a real danger that these batteries are collected and stored randomly in the open air; not in warehouses,” said Mohammed Musleh, an official with Gaza’s Environment Authority.

The most pressing threat, he said, is that “the batteries break and ooze liquid that includes sulfuric acid and leaks into the soil and then the water aquifer.”

Gaza’s Environment Authority estimates that there are 25,000 tons of old batteries piled up at several locations across the tiny and overcrowded coastal territory. There are no recycling facilities in Gaza and a punishing blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt prevents shipping the batteries abroad for safe disposal.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, used batteries create a number of risks to public health and the environment. Different types of batteries contain potentially dangerous types of metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium, while some can catch fire.

Such risks are especially acute in Gaza, where the health care system has been ravaged by years of conflict and lack of funds and where the environment is already in dire condition. Nearly all of Gaza’s water is undrinkable due to high saline levels caused by overextraction.

Israel bombed Gaza’s sole power plant during a round of fighting in 2006 and imposed the blockade with Egypt the following year after the Hamas militant group seized power in the strip from rival Palestinian forces. The result: a daily blackout of at least eight hours, punctuated with longer outages that can last for days during winter storms or conflicts.

This has turned batteries into an integral part of day-to-day life for the territory’s 2 million residents.

The Gaza City municipality has a hazardous waste unit that is meant to safely dispose of old batteries. But Ahmed Abu Abdu, head of the unit, says very few batteries reach him. Instead, a small private industry has sprouted up.

Every day, collectors in cars or donkey-drawn carts roam around Gaza, calling over loudspeakers for people wishing to sell old batteries. Depending on their size, old batteries can fetch up to $2 apiece.

Khaled Ayyad is one of dozens of merchants who buy the old batteries. For eight years, he has collected and stored them at a warehouse in northern Gaza.

Ayyad has one goal in mind: to export the batteries and make a decent profit.





“As the Israeli side allows them (batteries) into Gaza, it has to let them go out,” he said. “We can sell them to factories in Israel, European countries and all over the world.”

But exporting batteries is still banned, and Ayyad is facing a new dilemma: He has about 500 tons of batteries accumulated in the warehouse.

He can’t resell, export or dump them, and he has been paying storage fees. So, he has a message to Hamas: “We call on the officials in Gaza to speak to the Egyptian side to let us export them there.”

There is a precedent. Hamas and Egypt have boosted trade cooperation in recent years through a crossing in the border town of Rafah. The crossing is used mainly to deliver goods like construction materials, fuel and tobacco products into Gaza. But it has also been used to ship scrap metal out to Egypt.

While Ayyad’s warehouse has a concrete floor, most other storage locations are outdoors, risking spills of hazardous materials straight into the soil.

There have been no studies conducted on the threat to the environment, but research carried out in 2013 by a Gaza neurologist and an environmental science expert warned that children of people dealing with discarded batteries have “different degrees” of poisoning from exposure to lead.

Trying to reduce the danger, Hamas authorities have banned the import of secondhand batteries since 2017.

The Gaza-based al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, which in 2018 issued a report warning of the threat of batteries, said the danger is “far-reaching.”

“There is a problem,” said Hussein Hammad of the rights group. “Here, the batteries have started to affect human rights: the right to health, the right to clean environment and the right to life.”

Argentina's vanished persons and the long quest for justice

During Argentina's dictatorship, the regime "disappeared" and killed some 30,000 opponents. One of them was Omar Marocchi. An alleged perpetrator, a former military commander, has been tracked down in Berlin.

September 18, 1976 is a day Anahi Marocchi can't forget. She and her mother were living in Tandil, a town located 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of the capital Buenos Aires, when she learned that her beloved brother Omar — who was two years her junior — had disappeared.

To this day, Marocchi remembers how she and her mother collapsed after receiving the news. Since that fateful day Omar and his girlfriend, Susana Valor, who was three months pregnant at the time, remain missing and unaccounted for.

Nearly 44 years later, Marocchi hopes justice will ultimately prevail. "This is not just about Omar, about one individual. I'm representing all the victims of Argentina's military dictatorship and all those who are fighting for justice," she said.

Anahi Marocchi wants justice, not only for her brother but for all who were killed during the military dictatorship

Alleged perpetrator living in Germany

Recently, a man allegedly involved in Omar's murder was tracked down in Berlin, where he has been living with impunity for seven years. Luis Esteban Kyburg was the deputy commander of an elite naval unit which was demonstrably involved in crimes punishable under international law: Members of the opposition — people like Omar Marocchi — were abducted and carried away to a secret jail in Mar del Plata, a coastal town in the Buenos Aires province, where they were sexually abused, tortured and killed.

Read more: US files illuminate Argentina's 'dirty war'

Kyburg, now 72, has been the subject of an international arrest warrant for years. He is accused of being complicit in the abduction and murder of 152 people. Whereas other military personnel have been convicted for their crimes in Argentina, Kyburg remains at large, living in the heart of the German capital.

He fled to Berlin in 2013, after being called to testify in a court case in Argentina. Although the South American country demanded his extradition as early as 2015, Kyburg is protected by his German passport. However, Berlin's public prosecutor's office is now looking into the case and cooperating with counterparts in Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires.

Wolfgang Kaleck represents relatives of those killed during the military dictatorship

"Kyburg's nationality must not protect him from criminal prosecution. The Omar Marocchi case is just one of many thousands, in which people were abducted, tortured, sexually abused and killed in Argentina," said lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck, the founder and general secretary of the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. "Germany must live up to its responsibility and put him on trial here." 

Read more: Kaleck: Dealing with Argentina's past is the 'prime objective'

1976: Regime starts murdering opponents

During the military dictatorship in Argentina, General Jorge Videla's regime was responsible for "disappearing" some 30,000 opponents. Security forces kidnapped those "desaparecidos," took them to secret torture centers and killed them.

These victims were frequently thrown into the Atlantic Ocean from aircraft, either sedated or already dead, in the dictatorship's notorious death flights ("vuelos de la muerte"). Some 100 Germans and ethnic Germans — the most well-known was Elisabeth Käsemann, the daughter of a renowned German theologian — were among the victims.

Elisabeth Käsemann, civil rights activist and daughter of German theologian Ernst Käsemann,

 was killed in Argentina on March 24, 1977

Shortly after her brother disappeared, Anahi Marocchi joined human rights organizations. For decades, she has also been in contact with the "Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo," an association of women who lost children and grandchildren during Argentina's military dictatorship. "All of this is not a brief fight. I've been busy searching for those who were responsible for decades," she said.

According to Marocchi, Kyburg was an important figure in a perfectly organized network. "We've always been convinced that, in order for the junta's systematic plan to work, there had to be a gigantic organization of people. And, as a rule, those responsible were nowhere to be found," she said.

Anahi Marocchi appeals to German judicial system

Marocchi has received plenty of encouraging online messages during the last few weeks, with her brother's schoolmates calling on her to persevere. "That did me a lot of good," she said. Argentinian media are now covering the Kyburg case as well.

"It's likely he knows a great deal about my brother," said Marocchi. Of course, defendants have consistently refused to pass on information and claim innocence, but she's still hopeful she will learn more. "I'm looking for answers. I want to know how my brother died."

Susana Valor, Omar Marocchi's girlfriend: The fate of her and her child remains unknown

Kyburg, however, may still get off scot-free, because Berlin's public prosecutors must prove he murdered Omar Marocchi. To do so will require witness and expert testimonies from Argentina. The Kyburg court case could still go on for years.

Even so, Anahi Marocchi won't give up. In Argentina it took decades to hold the military personnel who were responsible to account.

"Germany must not be a haven for a man who has committed crimes against humanity," she said. "Kyburg must face the punishment he deserves. That would also be a signal for the future, because otherwise such crimes will be repeated."

'Hitler in Hell': George Grosz masterwork unveiled in Berlin

The exiled painter described his 1944 work as "Hitler as a fascist monster or as an apocalyptic beast." After more than 75 years in a private collection, the masterpiece is now in public hands.


George Grosz was a pioneer of irreverent Dada art in Berlin, an ardent critic of war and nationalism who went into exile before Hitler seized power in 1933.

In 1944, while living in the US, he completed a painting that portrays Hitler as a monster dictator reigning over an underworld of mass death and destruction. Titled Cain or Hitler in Hell, the masterwork has been privately owned (by the Grosz family) since its creation, but in 2019 was acquired by the German Historical Museum in Berlin (DHM).

The painting was officially unveiled today in Berlin, with Minister of Culture, Monika Grütters, Raphael Gross, President of the German Historical Museum Foundation, and Markus Hilgert, General Secretary of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, in attendance.

Purchased by the DHM with the support of the federal government and the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, the acquisition marks a major coup for the institution as the painting is considered one of the outstanding works created by a German artist in exile after the rise of the Nazi regime.

Hitler in Hell, as it is known, will soon be on view to the public as part of the museum's permanent collection.

Confronting Hitler

"We are very grateful that this important testimony of German exile art during National Socialism could be secured for our collection," said Raphael Gross on February 4 at the official unveiling at the DHM in central Berlin. "Especially with regard to our new permanent exhibition, which we are currently designing, it will be a central object that tells us a lot about the artistic confrontation with Hitler and National Socialism."

Read more: New Objectivity art: The anti-expressionism Weimar movement

Grosz, who gained a reputation for his highly political Dada art during the Weimar Republic, was a World War One veteran who became a trenchant critic of German nationalism and joined the Sparticist uprising in 1918.

As a communist and fierce anti-Nazi who condemned the emergence of fascism throughout Europe, it was no wonder that he emigrated to the US shortly before Hitler came to power in 1933. Soon after, the Nazis labelled his work "degenerate art" and removed it from the public collections in the so-called German Reich.

George Grosz' Dada collage from 1918 mocks the Prussian generals and religious leaders at the heart of a disastrous war

By the late 1930s, Grosz began to work again in his New York home, reviving many of his former themes as Hitler fomented world war and news of the Nazi death camps spread. Cain or Hitler in Hell is considered one of the main works of this era. Grosz himself described the picture as a representation of "Hitler as a fascist monster, or as an apocalyptic beast, consumed by his own thoughts."

The artist equated Hitler with the figure of Cain, who in the bible is presented as the archetypal murderer and the first in human history

Repatriating 'degenerate art'

The German Minister of State for Culture, Monika Grütters, noted at the unveiling that many of George Grosz' paintings were in fact destroyed by the Nazis after they confiscated 285 of his works from public collections.

"By purchasing one of his most important paintings, we are making a mark for reparation, and honoring one of the most talented artists in the Weimar Republic," she said. "Since its creation in 1944, the work Cain or Hitler in Hell has lost none of its power."

George Grosz at work in his Long Island studio in 1940

"On the contrary: George Grosz' apocalyptic vision of terror looks like an appeal, like a warning against forgetting, in view of the renewed anti-Semitism in our society," she continued. "It is works of art like this that help us learn the right lessons from history."

Back in Berlin

"This decidedly political picture shows how Grosz develops his critical formal language in exile," said Markus Hilgert of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States. "It is important to me that young people in particular have access to the painting and are able to deal with the artist's critical view of National Socialism."

He added that it was important to fulfill the Grosz family's wish that the painting is shown permanently where Grosz was born and also died. Though the artist became a US citizen in 1938, he returned to his home city with his wife in 1958, where he died a year later.


'AFTERMATH: ART IN THE WAKE OF WORLD WAR ONE' REFLECTS ON THE BRUTALITY OF THE GREAT WAR
Ypres After the First Bombardment: Christopher R. W. Nevinson, 1916
The British landscape painter presents an aerial view of the Belgian city of Ypres after it was first bombed in 1915, employing the abstract motifs used by cubists and futurists. Nevinson, a devotee of Italian futurism, initially believed the conflict was a sign of progress in the machine age. But after serving as an official war artist in France, he became ardently anti-war.
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Why Germany's nudist culture remains refreshing

From lakes to saunas and parks: Is Germany's nudist culture, known as FKK, dying out or still making waves? It's still strong enough to inspire a change of attitude for Berlin-based expats.

NAKED FACTS: GERMANY'S NUDISM MOVEMENT
A 'free body': Germany's nudist culture
It's a part of German culture, just like techno music and "Spargelzeit," the asparagus season. Even though the practice of Freikörperkultur (FKK), which translates as "free body culture," is dwindling among the younger generations of Germans, you'll still find lots of FKK areas on beaches as well as nude culture enthusiasts in spas — and even parks.
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At first glance it seems like a regular beach scene: Children running in and out the water, sandwiches being passed around families and couples sunning themselves.

But on closer inspection most people at Krumme Lanke, a lake in the south west of Berlin have something in common.

They aren't wearing a scrap of clothing. And it's a non-event. No one cares and no one is surprised. There's nothing sexy about it. It's 25C; it's a very hot spring day and there's really no need for clothing if you don't feel like wearing it.

Three letters allowing everyone to get naked: FKK

Germany has a tolerance of and, in some cases, a fondness for being "textile free." Whether it's one of the country's hundreds of spas and wellness resorts, parks or lakes, many citizens here are known for having no qualms about taking their clothes off.

Read more: Where to get naked in Germany

In certain parts of Germany, this is still a normal scene today

This is the country of FKK — Freikörperkultur — an informal movement that translates to free body culture.

But with bans on public nudity and the popularity of naked swimming in decline in Germany, advocates of nudist culture fear FKK is on its way out.

A declining tradition?

East Berlin-born Gregor Gysi, president of the European Left, spoke out last year on the decline of FKK and called for more designated areas for nudists.

Gregor Gysi, a key politician of The Left party, at the opening of a photo exhibition in 2017

The politician said that according to a sex researcher it was the "pornographic gaze" of Westerners after reunification in Germany that destroyed the pleasure of nude bathing that had always been more widespread in East Germany.

"It think it's a pity because FKK has class," says Gysi, 70.

An expat's perspective

Back at the lake a cyclist has just arrived, peeled off his bodysuit to reveal bare skin and jumped into the water. I'm not surprised at all the bums on show but it's taken some time to become accustomed to this laid-back attitude to nudity.

Why? Because I'm from Scotland, and, like other parts of the UK, there isn't the same attitude towards stripping off. To put it bluntly, if you take your clothes off in public you'd probably be accused of being a pervert. It's just not that common.

For Scotland the reluctance to go nude could be blamed on year-round terrible weather, but it's also something deeper. The British attitude to bare skin differs hugely from the continent. We're not used to seeing naked bodies unless they are highly sexualized in advertisements, music videos or porn.

So "normal" nudity in saunas or beaches can make expats giggle or feel embarrassed.

Put your cameras away: FKK beaches are not for Instagram

"In Anglo culture, people tend to have a very different relationship to the body, says Annegret Staiger, associate professor of anthropology at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. "Where as if you go to Germany, Bulgaria, France, Austria… it's a different story.

"In the US people are scandalized about skin and at the same time make such a hype about showing it," adds Staiger, who grew up in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, before leaving to study in the US in 1987.

A counterweight to sexualized nudity

For me, the thought of baring all in public was unimaginable until I visited Berlin to take part in a journalism fellowship in 2015. Along with learning the language I was trying to embrace German culture — and quickly found out that FKK and not wearing any clothes in spa environments was part of that.

You don't need a bathing suit to feel the heat in a sauna

It took a lot of courage but I did it. After years of feeling uncomfortable in my skin, feeling that my body was ugly or something to be hidden away, it felt empowering to lie on the wooden slats of the sauna, with the heat prickling across my skin.

I found the attitude to nudity in Germany refreshing.

I had battled body confidence issues for years and embarked on numerous diets as I struggled with my changing body shape after puberty. But here people of all shapes and sizes could take their clothes off and feel comfortable.

It was such a different concept compared to what I'd grown up with. Taking your clothes off isn't necessarily a sexual thing and it's not about looking good.

Politician Gysi agrees, saying nudism "isn't really erotic." "I see FKK as a possible counterweight to the ubiquitous sexualization in advertising, but also in society in general," he adds

The English Garden in Munich and the Tiergarten in Berlin are two of the most famous parks in Germany with nude areas

A brief history of a movement

The country's first FKK organization was created in 1898 and the idea, connected to the pursuit of good health, quickly spread, especially around Berlin, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

"Even at the turn of the century there was this movement away from the cities," says Staiger. "It was part of a broader movement connected to not having the body constrained by things like corsets, and letting it breathe."

Rather than sexualizing the body, the naturist movement was about health as well as freeing people from shame, social inequality and from the unhealthy living environments in the crowded cities of early industrialization.

At the time there were dozens of magazines and films dedicated to FKK culture.

FKK was initially banned by the Nazis during the war era, but the practice soon returned. Staiger says it could be argued that the party adopted the culture in some ways through their obsession with bodies.

"By the time Hans Suren's book Mensch und Sonne (1936) and Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film Olympia (1938) came about, nudism had become incorporated — at least to some extent — into the racial ideology of the Nazis," she says.

Leni Riefenstahl's film Olympia celebrated the aesthetics of the Aryan athletic body

FKK culture persisted after the war and, although it existed in both East and West Germany, it took on a new meaning in the East where it became a symbol for people to escape a repressive state.

"FKK culture has a long tradition in Germany," says Gysi. "Partly, it also had ties to the workers' movement. In the GDR (German Democratic Republic), FKK beaches on the Baltic Sea were the norm."

Gysi says there were no separate nude beaches — everyone, whether they chose to wear clothing or not — bathed together. "This way of dealing with nudity was lost after the country's reunification," he adds.

Not the spirit of FKK: Sex sauna clubs

Staiger says a darker side connected to FKK has emerged in recent years in the form of sauna clubs that sell sex.

"We have the issue of these sauna clubs or brothels that call themselves FKK sauna clubs, but they're hiding behind the FKK label. It's another cycle of co-optation of an idea or maybe an ideology."

These clubs, according to Staiger, "don't have the spirit of FKK," she says. "They're purely a euphemism to make it (prostitution) more acceptable."

"FKK and nudist culture was about celebrating the body unencumbered by clothes, in nature and sunlight," adds Staiger. "In FKK sauna clubs, only sex workers are naked, except for their six-inch high heels. That is not what the idea of FKK is about.

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There are however still many German spas that are textile-free facilities without being brothels, such as the Vabali Spa

A culture worth protecting

So how can naturist culture get back to its roots and does it have a place in modern German life?

The way forward, Gysi says, lies with local politics — and to ignore those against it. "They (politicians) can easily declare certain areas on beaches and in spas to be FKK areas and in doing so they should not be misled by investors (who don't want nude people there)," he says.

Gysi says nudism stands for "self-confidence and the departure from social constraints" and I have to agree. "That's important and worth supporting," he adds.

As a non-German I feel there's something special about naturist culture.

And I like living in a country where you're likely to find pensioners in the buff, friends chilling without clothes, and naked yoga. No one cares what you look like, it's just bodies — we all have them.

You'll find more from Meet the Germans on YouTube or at dw.com/MeettheGermans.